For the last few decades it has been known that a wide range of antimicrobial peptides are secreted by all manner of multicellular organisms in response to infection by foreign viruses, bacteria or fungi. Current research focuses on the mechanism by which the peptides kill, and synthetic design strategies which can enhance the activity of the peptides to a useful therapeutic level.
A wide range of antimicrobial peptides is secreted in plants and animals to challenge attack by foreign viruses, bacteria or fungi (Boman, 2003). These form part of the innate immune in response to infection, which is short term and fast acting relative to humoral immunity (Medzhitov, 2000). These cationic antimicrobial peptides have been considered as prospective antibiotics agents because their effect is rapid, broad spectrum and indifferent to resistance to standard antibiotics such as penicillins (Fischetti, 2003; Hancock, 1999). However, their success thus far has been limited, and is believed to be due to the requirement that they be present in a fairly high concentration to achieve killing (Hancock, 2000, PNAS), which is believed to exert a potentially cytotoxic effect on human erythrocytes as well as other cells and tissues. For these reasons current applications of these peptides are mostly topical.
Hundreds of such antimicrobial peptides have been studied extensively in order to understand the relationship between the structural features of the peptides and their antimicrobial activity, for the purpose of designing a new generation of antibiotics. Such known antimicrobial peptides are listed at (≦http://aps.unmc.edu/AP/database/antiV.php≧) and the content and disclosure of this site is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Representative peptides listed at the site are set forth hereinbelow by way of illustration and not limitation. Known antimicrobial peptides differ strikingly in size, sequence and structure, sharing only amphipathicity and positive charge (Hancock, 1999; Zasloff, 2002). While the external cell wall may be the initial target, several lines of evidence suggest that antimicrobial peptides act by lysing bacterial membranes. Cells become permeable following exposure to peptides, and their membrane potential is correspondingly reduced. While the actual target and mode of action of antimicrobial peptides are incompletely understood, proposed models emphasize the need to coat or cover a significant part of the membrane in order to produce a lethal effect. In “barrel-stave” models, several peptide monomers need to bind before formation of an aggregate that inserts itself into the bilayer to form a transmembrane pore. (Ehrenstein, 1977). In a somewhat different view, known as the “carpet model,” peptide monomers must coat the target membrane surface extensively before sections of the membrane split off as vesicles, thereby destroying the integrity of the membrane (Shai, 2001). Both mechanisms account for the observed threshold concentration required for peptides to achieve lethality differently. In many cases this threshold is close to that for inflicting damage on host cells or tissues, as detected by hemolysis assays for example. Thus peptides have not found wide applications except as topical agents.
Several strategies have been pursued in efforts to increase the effectiveness of antimicrobial peptides (Tam, 2002; Janiszewska, 2003; Tam, 2000; Dathe, 2004; Tang, 1999; Dempsey, 2003; Epand, 2004; Papo, 2004). Sequence changes in natural peptides can notably reduce hemolysis while preserving activity (Staubitz). Inserting unnatural D-amino acids or beta-amino acids into peptide sequences, combinatorial designs based on linear or cyclic sequences (Houghton, Ghadiri), synthetic chemical mimetics (DeGrado, Tew), and multivalent dendrimeric constructs of short peptides (Janiszewska, 2003; Xing, 2003) are other alternatives. In some cases improved solubility, salt resistance, stability and toxicity have been reported, with some reduction in IC50 (Tam, 2002).
Accordingly, many different designs for therapeutics have been reported, seeking to develop or improve activity under physiological conditions, low toxicity and proteolytic stability. Among promising approaches, polyvalent or multivalent antimicrobial polymers offers promise for enhancing the efficacy of existing antimicrobial monomer peptide and minimizing the problems accompanying conventional antimicrobial peptides by reducing the toxicity of the residue, increasing their efficiency and selectivity, and prolonging the lifetime of the effect. Especially, these include their ability to amplify cationic charges and hydrophobic clusters as the number of monomer increases. (Tam, 2002). For example, the multivalency of peptides incorporated with fragments of known antibacterial peptides in dendrimers has appeared to demonstrate good activity in the design of membranolytic peptides for therapeutic applications (Tam, 2002).
In this connection, U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,490 to Tam discloses a particular polymeric construction formed by the binding of multiple antigens to a dendritic core or backbone, the objective of which is to potentiate the concentration of antigen within a more economical and efficient molecule. While this construction has demonstrated advantages, greater activity and corresponding stability of the construct is still an important objective that is not fulfilled therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,653 to Schuck et al. discloses the preparation and use of polymer-based protein complexes, and particularly, relates to the preparation of such complexes with hormones such as bovine growth hormone, insulin and the like. Schuck et al. however, prepare complexes with full length native hormones, and bind the native material to the polymer backbone for the purpose of improving the delivery and availability of such hormones. The inventors qualify that the level of activity of the resulting complexes are somewhat uncertain, and in any event, do not represent that any dramatic improvements in such activity are either anticipated or realized.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPS) have been proposed as prospective antibiotic agents because of their ability to rapidly inactivate a wide range of microorganisms including Gram-positive and negative bacteria, fungi and some viruses. In many cases they are indifferent to current multi-drug resistant strains (Hancock and Chapple 1999; Lehrer and Ganz 1999).
From the above, it remains that a continuing need exists for the development of modalities that can deliver effective antibiotic peptides in a manner that confers both improved stability and economy of the therapeutic, but importantly, significantly improves the therapeutic efficacy and strength of the resultant molecule. It is toward the fulfillment of these and other related objectives that the present invention is directed.